Fraction and I were talking the other day about disaster fatigue (and Apocalypse fatigue) in terms of films — we’ve seen the ENTIRE! WORLD! ON THE BRINK! OF! DESTRUCTION! so many times now that it’s lost any meaning. It just feels like… like watching over someone’s shoulder as they play a video game. We’re not just tired of it, we’re made tired BY it.
We’re getting to the same place in real life — oh, hey! The American government is going to shut down! UH-gain. Civil rights are under attack! Wild fires! Bird-flu! North Korea! Syria! Boston! Chicago! Detroit! Flooding in the Philippines! Mass shootings! It’s… it’s exhausting.
The temptation is to just run and hide. I just want to lock my family in a room together and pretend I can keep them all safe forever.
From a story perspective, I’m struggling with how to write these increasingly larger stakes and have it actually mean anything. How to say something about the world in which we’re living without adding to the fatigue. It’s tough. I certainly haven’t figure it out yet — Hickman is making it work in the Marvel Universe right now by balancing the BIG with the SMALL. If we don’t empathize with the people at the center of the Global Disaster, it’s all VFX.
I got this letter yesterday and it pushed some of these same buttons for me — I know we’re all tired, emotionally and financially spent, and the temptation to hide under the covers is intense, but when the author mentioned being part of a military family… it made the huge horrible story small for me. Small doesn’t always lower the stakes, sometimes the small parts are the only parts that feel real.
I am a part of a military family. India’s letter made me think of how the base would pull together whenever one of ours was suffering. It made me remember one high alert when all the moms in our two buildings just walked outside for some reason — all of them standing in the street talking to each other, squeezing hands, strategizing…
I know we don’t have the means to cure the world’s ills and I know throwing a few bucks at a problem doesn’t make the hurt go away, but India’s letter moved me and I’m going to find a little to pitch in for the victims of the Naval Yard Shooting.
Maybe you will too.
Or maybe India’s note will just remind you that surrounding all these exhausting real-life horror stories are people like India who, even though they are COMPLETELY WRONG ABOUT FOOTBALL, love and care, and they remind us to love and care too. And maybe that will be enough to help you peek out from under the blanket a tiny bit.
That’d be good too.
Ms. DeConnick,
Firstly, I just wanted to say how huge a fan I am of your work. I love how you write Carol, and your stories have inspired me to be much more bold and daring than I usually am. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve taken a deep breath and thought “Have a Captain Marvel moment, India,” before I do something that’s out of my comfort zone.
This, right now, is one of those moments.
I don’t know if the news about the Navy Yard Shooting made it to Portland or not, and I don’t know if you’ve heard about it. The response I’ve been getting from people outside DC and the military community is apathetic at most.
I’m a Navy brat, and I interned at the US Navy Museum on the Navy Yard over the summer. Luckily, none of my former coworkers were harmed. I’m so thankful that they made it out safely, along with my friend’s dad, who works in the building where the shooting took place.
I’m writing to ask you for help. After Boston and Sandy Hook, there was an outpouring of tributes, and every other post on tumblr featured a link to where you could donate to some organization helping the victims. I haven’t seen any of that for the Navy Yard, and I was wondering if you could post links to some donation pages. These are the three I’ve found: The Navy Yard Relief Fund, T.A.P.S., and The Navy League.
One of my favorite things about the Navy, and about the US military, is that we’re a huge extended family, and even if we have personal differences between us, we always find ways to help each other. Even though Carol is Air Force (and Navy is totally going to beat them in football this year), I’d like to think that she’d be shaken and shocked, just like I was, and still am.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, and thank you so much for giving the world a character as inspiring and as badass as Colonel Carol Danvers.
Cheers,
India P